According to the preliminary investigation of the criminal proceedings investigated by the RA Anti-Corruption Committee, factual information was obtained that while occupying the position of Deputy Minister of Health of the Republic of Armenia in 2020-2022, the Deputy Mayor of Yerevan G. Simonyan did not fulfill his official duties due to personal interest, as a result of which significant damage was caused to the legal interests of the state.
According to the data obtained in the criminal proceedings, the RA Government has allocated more than 26 billion AMD for the implementation of the program of “Prevention, control, and other complex measures for the treatment of the new coronavirus infection (Covid-19) in the Republic of Armenia”, which was fully financed from the reserve fund of the Government of the Republic of Armenia. Within the framework of the mentioned program, the list of medical organizations that provide medical care and service financed from the state budget against diagnosis and treatment of the coronavirus disease “COVID-19”, was approved by an order of the Minister of Health of the Republic of Armenia in 2020, in which “Medline Clinic” Liited Liability Company was also included.
According to the order of the Minister of Health, G. Simonyan, the Deputy Minister was given an instruction to coordinate the medical care and maintenance services necessary for the coronavirus disease, including funding coordination, and L. E., the consultant on pulmonology and tuberculosis of the Ministry of Health of RA, head of the drug resistant department of “National Center of Pulmonology” of RA Ministry of Health was appointed as the responsible for the triage (Discharge Triage Groups) classification of patients with confirmed COVID-19 and patients receiving treatment in hospital conditions and those subject to discharge.
According to the preliminary investigation carried out in the criminal proceedings, it was found out that within the framework of the above-mentioned program, the founding director of “Medline Clinic” LLC B. Sh. organized the inclusion and realization of obviously false information in the medical records of the same company by the doctors of the same company, as well as embezzled a particularly large sum of money with the prior agreement with the same persons.
In particular, at least 8 of the doctors of the medical organization, with the organization of B. Sh. included false information in the medical histories of 385 patients who received inpatient treatment in the somatic unit in the period from July 2020 to December 2021, as if the said patients received treatment in the intensive care unit, and then submitted false reports to the RA Ministry of Health on the same.
On the basis of submitted false reports, a particularly large amount of 119,005,000 AMD was transferred to “Medline Clinic” Limited Liability Company from the financial resources of the program “Prevention, control, and other complex measures for the treatment of the new coronavirus infection (Covid-19) in the Republic of Armenia”,
Being responsible for coordinating the funding of the above-mentioned program by an order of the Minister, as well as being obliged to carry out control over the functions of discharge of patients with coronavirus disease, based on personal interest not to worsen his personal nepotism and former business relations with the Founding Director of “Medline Clinic” LLC B.Sh., Deputy Minister of Health G. Simonyan deliberately did not fulfill his duties, that is, he did not supervise the discharge triage group manager L. E. and the members of the group, as a result of which the members of the mentioned group, visiting “Medline Clinic” LLC, did not compare the false data in the medical records of the patients receiving inpatient treatment with the actual health status of the patients and did not record these inconsistencies.
As a result of G. Simonyan's actions, the director of “Medline Clinic” LLC, B.Sh. was given the opportunity to embezzle particularly large amount of 119,005,000 AMD by means of fraud with prior agreement.
Taking into account that there are facts proving the commission of the crime, on March 9, 2023 the investigator of the RA Anti-Corruption Committee that conducts the proceeding, filed a petition to the supervising prosecutor with the request to initiate a public criminal prosecution against G. Simonyan under part 2 of article 308 of the RA Criminal Code applicable at the time of committing the act. The petition was granted, and the investigator made a decision to detain him with the purpose of bringing him to the court to select arrest as a measure of restriction against G. Simonyan, currently at large.
Within the frames of the criminal proceedings both G. Simonyan and B.Sh., the director of “Medline Clinic” LLC was detained on March 10, as well as L.E. the head of the drug-resistant unit of the “National Center of Pulmonology” of the RA Ministry of Health and 8 other people
The investigation is underway.
Notification. the person accused of a crime is considered innocent until his guilt is proven in accordance with the procedure established by the RA Criminal Procedure Code by a verdict entered into legal force.
